Part 81: DS Ninja Locksmiths, at your Service! part 2

DS Update 24: Ninja Locksmiths, at your Service! part 2



Hello, everyone! I'm back. First order of business:


Going just to the right of the save point room, we complete another floor!

Obtained Red Fang

Oh. Joy. Maybe someday I'll remember to use those things! _{I probably won't.}


Anyway, today we're finishing the Tower of Babil. We have no Flamehounds to worry about. Just a boss. No problem, right?


Although, now that I think of it,

Obtained 3 X-Potions


Rubicante is the Archfiend of fire, right? That explains why his tower is infested with his flaming pets.

However, it does not explain why Barbariccia's domain, the Tower of Zot, was lousy with ice-based beasties.


Oh hey, it's a new enemy!


It's... a dragon. A thoroughly mundane, no-frills dragon. Oddly, this guy wasn't listed in the encounter table of the guide I've been following. Huh. Well, no matter. Green Dragons have a massive 17,000 HP and no elemental weaknesses.


They're not that scary, as long as you don't take them lightly. Their normal attack doesn't do much damage (to Cecil at least, but he's the only one that'll be taking the hits),


and they take normal damage from your attacks.


And that's Edge for you, critting like a boss. Oh, Edge.


This is their only scary attack.


Full party lightning attack, and the damage is... worrisome. It's easily healed, of course, so you should be good as long as it doesn't decide to spam it.


However, I fought two of these things, and they both only used this attack once. Was I just lucky, or are they not that aggressive? You decide! Also, you only ever have to fight one of them at a time, unlike the Flamehounds.


If you can handle Flamehounds, then these things shouldn't give you any trouble whatsoever.


They drop a metric shit-ton of exp, too!


Dang. Cecil's this close to breaking 3,000 HP. Go Cecil!


Rydia just keeps being Rydia, of course.


And Edge gets stronger and faster. Exactly what he needs.


Now, see that platform in the center? That's where The Boss Fight is. Don't go there until you're ready.


There's still some treasure to grab, for one. Money is always appreciated!


And there's absolutely nothing of interest up here. All you get is map completion points. Lame.


Another level up for Rosa, while I'm running around up here.


Ooh, and another new enemy, too!


These guys are cousins of the Iron/Steel Golems. They have 9,869 HP and no particular weaknesses.


Their defense isn't even that high. How boring.


Let's see how Edge is coming along. It's damage comparison time!


Shuriken...


And Rydia's Dragon summon. That's... pretty damn respectable, Edge! You almost matched Rydia for damage! I think we can officially welcome Edge to Team Asskicker. Wouldn't you say?


And with that, I believe we're ready to tackle the boss.


Before we do that, I need to shuffle some equipment and abilities around. Contrary to what you might think, Rubicante actually absorbs ice, except under a very specific circumstance. Make sure you replace all your ice-based equipment with non-elemental varieties. In this case, Kain gets his old Dwarven Axe back.


Also, Rubicante has a very nasty trick up his sleeve, which can be prevented if you have Steal handy. I put that on Edge, replacing Ninjitsu. I can guarantee Edge will have better things to do than trying to be better than Rydia at her job (and failing miserably).


OK! We're ready. Let's go fight Rubica-


Hey, wait a second. That's not Rubicante!




Oh hey, it's Edge's parents! Wait, aren't they supposed to be...

Thank goodness, you're all right!

And you!

Um, Edge?

Come, Edge.

Yes... come with us.

With you? Where?

To hell!

Oh what a surprise! Your (dead) parents appear out of nowhere and everything is totally on the up and up. Yep.

Edge, watch out!


And Cecil comes rushing to Edge's aid, just in time for...




A boss fight, of course!


We have to fight the King and Queen of Eblan. Now, this fight is a bit different from your typical boss fight.


I'll explain why while Kain tries to catch them off guard by pretending to be upset.


There, it worked! Now, this boss fight is on a timer.


It ends after a certain number of turns pass. This doesn't change my overall strategy as much as you might think. Rydia is still going to Bluff herself, for example.


And Rosa and Cecil still set up the usual protections.


Dualcast means,




Rosa can Slow both of them at once!


Then allow me to speed you on your way!

As time goes on, the King and Queen will taunt you.


That's the last of our usual setup. Time to go to town!


Edge will be uncharacteristically relying on his normal attack for this fight.


The damage is much better than it used to be, but still pales in comparison to a Shuriken. However, you don't want to use Shurikens here. Remember, this fight is on a timer. You don't want to waste any items, because it won't do any good.


However, you can feel free to burn as much MP as you want. Rydia's attack pattern for the whole fight is Bluff, followed by Dragon. She nearly hit the damage cap on the Queen!


The rest of the team will just whale on them as best they can. This fight takes awhile, and there's no way to make it go any faster. Pretty annoying.


As long as you remember not to waste any items, you're fine.


They don't even do that much damage to the party. Rosa can almost keep up with Pray alone.


Pray also helps compensate for the strain on Rydia's MP. You can burn as much of it as you like during this fight, but she will run out eventually. Pray let's you refill it without wasting Ethers.


In fact, the King and Queen do so little damage to us that Rosa can take a break from healing duty!


The damage still isn't that great, but come on. She's the healer. What do you expect?


Mother! Father!

As the fight progresses, Edge has some words for his parents.




While the rest of the party continues to beat them senseless.


I really wonder how Edge feels about all this...


Edge continues to try and talk sense into them.

Some time later,


The screen flashes white, and-




the king and queen change color- I mean, come back to their senses!

Edge... Hear me while I can speak. We are no longer human. What we are... has no right to live.

Forgive us, Edge.

...

We must depart now... Before the madness takes us again. Serve Eblan well, my son.

No! Don't go!


But the King of Eblan will not be swayed. He fades away to nothing.

Farewell, Edge.

Mother! Wait! Don't go!


But the Queen does not heed her son's words. She, too, fades away.


Polsy version

Poor Edge.

_{On the subject of voice actors, Edge's is Taliesin Jaffe, and Rubicante is Lee Everest (same as Tellah).}

Now, back to your regularly-scheduled




sweet black revenge!


Yep, so at last, we're up against the final elemental archfiend: Rubicante, the Autarch of Flame.


And right away he shows off his gimmick. How kind of him. Here's the deal: Rubicante is weak to water, and he absorbs fire (of course) and ice, but only when his cloak is closed. When it's open, he's weak to ice.

However, good luck exploiting that. You don't want to leave his cloak open. You really really don't, for Reasons. We'll see why in a bit.




In the meantime, set up your usual buffs,


and Slow Rubicante. The fewer turns this asshole gets, the better. Trust me on this!


Rydia Bluffs herself. She'll have to deviate from her usual pattern a bit.


Kain gives his sob story to Rubicante to catch him off guard.


It still works.


Edge decides to take a little personal revenge.


By chucking a Shuriken right at Rubicante's family jewels. That's gotta hurt!


Now, here's why you want to be careful of what you do to Rubicante. Like most bosses, he has a counterattack. Several, actually. He'll counter physical attacks with Fira.


Against the whole party.


It doesn't do much damage, but it adds up quickly!

He also counters Summons with Blizzara, on himself, which will heal him, naturally (unless his cloak is open). There are probably some shenanigans you could employ to take advantage of this, but it's not really worth the risk!


And here's why. Like the other archfiends, Rubicante has a super attack, which he can only do while his cloak is open.


You might recognize from Edge's solo fight with him, back when we first met him.


Remember what it did to Edge?


Yeah. It does the same thing to us! (And heals him, too, because fuck you!)


Like with Cagnazzo's Tsunami, it's almost impossible to recover from this. Thankfully, like with Cagnazzo, you can fix it so Rubicante never gets to fire Inferno off!


Let's rewind a bit to the beginning of the fight. As soon as Rubicante opens his cloak,


use Steal.


Rubicante has nothing to steal,


but Stealing forces him to close his mantle. I don't really blame him. Edge is a ninja, yeah? Ever hear of "Monkey Snatches the Peach?" I'd be worried if I were him, too!


Now, since Summons are out, Rydia is going to have to be a bit more creative to contribute to this fight.


First, she Bios Rubicante, which damages him and inflicts Sap.


Oh, Rubicante also has a physical attack. It looks pretty flashy!


But the damage is piddling. Just keep Cecil's HP up and you're golden.


He eats a Counter for his trouble, of course.


Now, it's probably wiser to keep Edge on standby, so he's ready to Steal at a moment's notice.


But I like living dangerously. This isn't as risky as it seems because 1) Edge is fast as hell. 2) There's quite a bit of delay between when Rubicante opens his cloak to when he hits you with Inferno. Edge will get a turn before that happens, I guarantee it.


Just don't go too crazy with the attacks.


The damage isn't that high, but it does add up, especially on Edge! You need Edge alive to Steal, so be careful!


Kain does his usual, of course.


And Rydia moves on to the next stage of her plan.




While Rosa gives her some MP. Surprisingly, on everyone not named Edge, Pray almost makes up for the damage of one casting of Counter: Fira. Only one, though.




I decided I really don't care. That damage is just too good to pass up!


Oh, there he goes again with the cloak!


We can handle that.


The damage from his counterattack almost did Edge in! You really need to be careful in this fight!




Fortunately, Rosa has us covered!


And Edge is able to scare Rubicante into covering himself again.


Now, here's the second phase of Rydia's plan.




Quake does a fair bit of damage to him, and it doesn't seem to invoke counterattacks. Works for me!

A few more rounds of merciless beating later...


and Rubicante is down for the count! That wasn't so bad, now was it?


We get a nice chunk of cash, and a triple level up! How nice of the asshole.


Rydia is never satisfied with middling levels of murder. There are always higher murder levels to attain!


Good job Kain. Way to stay relevant, I guess.


Edge is kind of showing you up, though.


You are fine warriors indeed. Lord Golbez himself will find you no easy opposition. I pray the day comes that we can fight each other again.


And there he goes. You know, just once, I'd like it if someone I killed in battle would stay dead.


Oh, can they now? Did you miss the part where he's not dead?




Oh, hey, it's that guy!



It's already done.

Oh! I should have expected no less of you.


Nice of him to give us credit, though Edge is no slouch himself!




He hasn't been paying very close attention, has he?

He is a man gathering the Crystals in hope of opening a way to the moon, and he is Rubicante's master.

He wants to go to... the moon? The moon, the one in the night sky?

Oh boy, if Edge can tell your plan is batshit, then it's pretty goddamn batshit!



We're going to make sure that doesn't happen!


I get they were going for Big Dramatic Pose, here, but it just looks silly with Edge's cape attached to his wrist.



This isn't just about Eblan! It's about the whole world! I have to help stop him.

Well then... do be careful!

Edge nods.



Very well. We will do our best to protect Eblan in your absence.



May shadow hide you, Your Highness!

And you!




Edge starts to walk away, but...



We came here for the Crystals.


Uh huh...


And we regain control, right where we left off! Let's see what the crew has to say:


I'm sure they're close, Cecil. We just fought the boss and all.


I think Edge has his own coping mechanisms.


Again, coping mechanism, Kain. Have some compassion!


See? It's all bravado.


I hope so too!


Now, we have some minor things to take care of before we move on.

First,


Edge gets his Ninjitsu back. It may not be terribly useful, but it's better than Steal!


Here are his new skills, courtesy of the cutscene. Flood and Blitz are, respectively, water and lightning versions of Flame. That means, Edge can hit 4 different elemental weaknesses. Not bad! The MP cost (20) is still rather steep, though.


And that's the final floor of the Tower complete!

Obtained Elixir

And we get a nice prize for it to boot!

Now, before we move on, I need one more thing...


Remember those Balloons can drop a Summon for Ryida? Well, I got one! _{With cheating...}




I also got more level ups for my trouble! (And Cecil broke 3,000 HP! Right on!)


Now, that Summon doesn't do any good unless I teach it to her so...


There! Now Rydia has all the extra Summons! I'll show off this one in a bit.


For now, we need to grab the Crystals and get the hell out of Dodge!


Huh. Well, how about that.


And there they are, just sitting there. Ooh. This is so, so obviously a trap! Want to do anything about that, Edge? If you can Matrix-shit your way through a wall, a simple booby trap should be no problem!

No?

Ugh. Fine, then!

We take one step forward and,


Oh, what a surprise!


And Cecil falls.


A long way.


A really long way!


Splat. I don't know how he survived that, but he did!


"Oww?" I'm surprised your insides aren't liquid!


Kain takes a quick look around.


Jesus, you guys fell all the way back down to the Underworld?! How is it you're not liquified?!


Sure enough, we did. See that? This is the floor where we fought Dr. Lugae!


Well, we'd have to climb, and fight, all the way back up. Have you forgotten the Flamehounds?


Yes, I agree. Once was more than enough!


Yep, what a wash this was. King Giott is not going to be pleased.


I believe it falls somewhere between "giant" and "really fucking huge."


Oh yeah, there's that too. What a bunch of fuckups we are, huh?


Well, there's a door to the south.


Let's see where it leads.


Ah hah! Here's that other chunk of B7 we couldn't get to before!

That means...


Yessss!

Obtained Elixir

Nice! Another Elixir! Having more of those is never a bad thing!

By the way,


there are still enemies here, but these were the only ones I found the whole time. They die in about 30 seconds.


Onward and uh... downward, I guess?


Since the enemies here are weaksauce and give crap for experience, I figured I'd take the time to show off more of Edge's tricks.


Here's one of his newest Ninjitsu skills.


Looks pretty flashy!


Eh, not bad, I guess.


Moving on...


Oh for fucks... OK, I lied, I guess, these assholes are down here too.


Let's have Edge handle this one!


Ninja-zap, bitches!


... OK, go ahead. Have a laugh at my expense! I can take it. I forgot these things absorb lightning, all right?!


That's better!


There's treasure to be had down here, too! A loose definition of "treasure" at this point, but loot is loot!


Happy days!

Obtained 2 Ethers

Still can't buy those things, so I'll take what I can get.


At this point, I got sick of being jumped by random scrubs every 5 steps.


Ninja-vanish!


Smell ya later!


The last door. We're almost out!


A... ship? What's a ship doing down here?


The enemy's latest airship?


I like the way you think, Edge!

But it's an enemy ship.

So?


That, too.


The party strolls down the platform to inspect their prize.


I don't know. Let's ask our resident ninja about that!


Well, I'm convinced!

All right, then... we'll call her the Falcon!

I approve of this name.


Hey, what's wrong with falcons?!

Quickly! we must get out of here!


Let's.


We cut to just outside the Tower of Babil.


And the Falcon rises out of the ground.


And with that, we have a brand new airship!


I park it just outside the Tower. I have one last bit of unfinished business to attend to.


If he doesn't lock us up on the spot, I'll count us very fortunate.


I'm more worried about us than the dwarves, frankly.


... Seriously, did everyone miss the part where Rubicante is not fucking dead?!


I know! Amazing, isn't it?


The calm before the storm? Oh boy, here we go!


Real quick, I save, but I'm not going to end the update quite yet.


It turns out, you can get back into the Tower at this point. I know for a fact that it's closed off later. This gives me a chance to take care of one last thing.


Not this. This happened on the way to said business.


Namely,


Vengeance!


The asshole in the front is a Flame Knight. If you recall, I never managed to kill one of them. Let's fix that!


It's amazing what a difference a few levels can make.




Here we go. And I got to scan it, too!


Now, let's get down to business.


The business of beating the tar out of these assholes!


Are you ready?


Yes, yes oh, YES!


Shove that up your rancid, flaccid assholes, and tell 'em Silver sent ya!

OK. I feel better now. That will do for today. I'll leave you with this:


Polsy version

I'll see you next time, everybody!